The Taipei High Administrative Court yesterday ruled in favor of residents of Shezidao (社子島) in Taipei’s Shilin District (士林), saying that the environmental impact assessment (EIA) results for the development of the peninsula should be revoked.
Shezidao, an alluvial plain at the confluence of the Tamsui (淡水河) and Keelung (基隆河) rivers, has become a center of debate since the Taipei City Government on Jan. 19, 2022, approved the EIA report on the peninsula’s development project.
The Shezidao Self-help Association filed an administrative lawsuit against the city government the same year, arguing that the EIA results were passed despite significant flaws in the assessment approach.
Photo courtesy of the Shezidao Self-help Association
FLAWED ASSESSMENT
The court in the ruling said that the assessment results were illegal for three reasons.
First, the wastewater treatment plant to be built in Shezidao was not included in the EIA, the ruling said.
The plant would be used to treat not only the project’s construction sewage, but also household sewage after the project’s residential buildings are built, it said.
As household sewage is projected to reach 35,000 tonnes per day and would be discharged into the project’s central river channel after treatment, the plant is crucial to the project’s flood control plan and should be included in the assessment, the ruling said.
Second, the assessment failed to evaluate embankment facilities, which would aid the central river channel in drainage and flood control, it said.
Third, it failed to submit a wetland impact report as required by Article 27 of the Wetland Conservation Act (濕地保育法), the ruling said.
Given that the evaluation of embankment facilities was excluded from the assessment, the Ministry of the Interior, the central wetland authority, was misled into concluding that the project would not involve national wetlands around the Tamsui River and did not require the city government to conduct a wetland impact assessment, it said.
Association spokeswoman Li Hua-ping (李華萍) yesterday told a news conference that local residents do not oppose the development of Shezidao.
However, they oppose the city government’s “zone expropriation” plan, in which their residences would be destroyed and they would be forced to leave, she said, calling on Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) to suspend the project.
Association attorney Kuo Hung-yi (郭鴻儀) said the city government should listen to local residents’ opinions and shift to a bottom-up approach in planning Shezidao’s development and preserve the cultural heritage of local communities.
The city government has budgeted up to NT$130 billion (US$4 billion) for Shezidao’s development, he said, calling on the city government not to use such a huge amount of money to expel the peninsula’s residents to benefit particular groups.
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